NEW YORK, July 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Oligomerix, Inc., a privately held company pioneering the discovery and development of disease modifying therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders, announced today that James Hendrix, Ph.D., has been appointed Senior Director of Chemistry of the company.

Dr. Hendrix has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical research experience, predominantly in the area of neuroscience research, including AD. His focus has primarily been on the discovery of drug candidates, having successfully led teams that have advanced many compounds into clinical and preclinical development.

He spent most of his 20 years with Sanofi-Aventis where he held multiple positions of increasing responsibility. Before being appointed senior director for Sanofi-Aventis, Dr. Hendrix served as director of medicinal chemistry with a focus on central nervous system (CNS) disorders. In this position, Dr. Hendrix managed 30 medicinal chemists focused on drug discovery for CNS targets and was a member of the company's global CNS Management Board.

"Dr. Hendrix's extensive experience and leadership within the life science community will be crucial to Oligomerix as the company advances its compounds into preclinical development," said James Moe, Ph.D., MBA, president and CEO of Oligomerix. "Given the recent high profile failures within the Alzheimer's drug industry, we believe our approach to targeting tau will shed light on alternative methods for addressing this disease. The successful development of our programs depends on an experienced management team, and we're confident Dr. Hendrix's insights will be an invaluable resource to our efforts."

Regarding his appointment to Oligomerix, Dr. Hendrix remarked, "I'm excited to join Oligomerix during this time of rapid growth. Oligomerix's approach offers the industry a unique opportunity to target Alzheimer's in a manner beyond the beta amyloid hypothesis, and I'm eager to lend my experience as the company advances into the clinic."

ABOUT OLIGOMERIX Oligomerix, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors, immunotherapeutic approaches and biomarkers targeting tau oligomers.. The Company was founded in 2006 and is located within the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park at Columbia University Medical Center. The Company is seeking strategic partners to help accelerate these exciting programs. For more information visit www.oligomerix.com.

Certain matters described in this news release may be forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk of dependence on market growth, competition and dependence on government agencies and other third parties for funding contract research and services.